The Israel Foreign Ministry today called in the diplomatic representatives of the United States, Britain. France and Turkey to express the Israel Government’s grave concern over the continued violation of its borders by raiding Arab bands from nearby states. Afterwards the Foreign Minister issued a statement scoring the United Nations truce administration in Israel as inefficient because it cannot halt the repeated incidents.
The foreign envoys were requested to forward to their governments a request from Israel that they use their good offices with the Arab governments, especially Egypt and Jordan, to check infiltration and border incidents which, the Israeli authorities stressed, were violations of international and armistice pacts. The same requests will be made by Israeli diplomats in Washington, London, Paris and Ankara.
Among the incidents listed as causing Israel concern were the halting and searching of Israeli fishing boats last Friday by an Egyptian warship 15 miles offshore and the killing of two Israeli soldiers by Jordan forces near Wadi Fukin on the same day. Gen. Mordecai Makleff, Israel Army Chief of Staff, called in Gen. William Riley. Chairman of the UN truce observation staff, and the military attaches of the U.S., Britain, France and Turkey, and made the same points to them.
In the statement issued by the Foreign Ministry to announce these moves, it was stated that the four powers whose envoys were called in today seem unaware of the real responsibility in the present situation, and that the Arabs feel that the matter is of no concern to the UN truce administration. The statement cited a Damascus radio broadcast quoting an Egyptian official spokesman as explaining that the Egyptian raid on the Israeli fishing vessels was in “revenge” for Israeli interception of two Egyptian vessels.
The Israeli statement enumerated three “stages” or types of infiltration noted on Israel’s borders: 1. Infiltration for robbery; 2. Infiltration for murder; 3. Open infiltration, as symbolized by the interception of the Israeli vessels on the open sea and the Wadi Fukin incident.
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